


Red String of Fate

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 09:05:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18775156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Lisa and Louisa take part in a Jorvik tradition, and relive some fond memories of their first date.





	Red String of Fate

Married life was hardly what Louisa had expected. But then again, she hadn’t exactly grown up with many examples of two-wife households either in real life or on TV or movies or in books. Part of her had thought that there would be some difficulties with it- who would cook, who would clean, who would pay bills. But instead, life was much the same as it had been ever since they’d moved in together. Louisa did the bulk of the cooking unless Lisa offered to do it, simply because Louisa was the better cook of the two. Lisa still raided the fridge and pantry for chocolate and cookies, and Louisa still kept a tin of cookies right up on the top of the kitchen cabinets out of Lisa’s reach. There was also a decoy cookie tin that held sewing supplies, much to Louisa’s amusement and Lisa’s frustration.

Living as a married couple was almost like… a dance. And there was that added security of knowing without a shadow of a doubt that this was forever. They’d made that commitment, and neither of them committed to things lightly. That and there was the added thrill of delight that came with referring to each other as their wife. And signing their new last name of McPeters.

“You know, there’s one thing we forgot to do,” Lisa mused as the two of them sat together in their front yard one evening, watching the horses in the distance.

“We missed something?” Louisa asked, surprise widening her eyes and making her heart pound. “But we went to all our honeymoon destinations, we signed the marriage certificates, what did we forget?”

“There’s a springtime tradition on Jorvik,” said Lisa. “And it’s really romantic and I can’t believe we forgot to do that.”

“Well, we have been pretty distracted our entire relationship. Especially more recently,” said Louisa.

“True,” said Lisa, nodding. “Saving the world will do that. But anyway, every spring in Jorvik, it’s traditional to ride up a special marked trail in the Firgrove mountains with someone special. Originally it was horses but, well, you know how couples are.”

“The red string of fate?” Louisa asked, grinning. Her grin only widened as Lisa nodded.

“How do you know about that?” Lisa asked.

“I’m a hopeless romantic,” said Louisa. “But that’s the only thing I know about the red string story, the name and that it’s a theory or something that people can be tied together by destiny using a red string. The string can tangle along the way, but never break.”

“Okay, well, I don’t know about anywhere else but in Jorvik, you ride with someone or just with your favourite horse up the trail in the Firgrove mountains to the very top. There, you tie the piece of red string that you grabbed at the bottom. I did it with Starshine and the other Soul Riders a while ago. Thought it might be cute if we did it too,” said Lisa, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Yes please,” said Louisa, feeling excitement thrill through her. “We can do it tomorrow morning?”

“That’s exactly what I was going to suggest,” said Lisa. “But you can tell your friends if you want, I don’t mind. We can go as a group and then split off into pairs.”

“Oh, I forgot all about them,” said Louisa, her heart seeming to stop. “Whoops.”

“Dear god, you were being selfish, it might rain,” said Lisa with a laugh. Louisa frowned at her.

“Shut up,” said Louisa, her cheeks warming. “But we’ve got all of spring to do it, right?”

“Yep,” said Lisa. “We can be selfish and do it alone, and then you can go with your friends. Tie your red strings together as a show of how you’re connected together.”

“That’s gonna be a lot of string,” said Louisa. Lisa giggled.

The next morning, Louisa tacked up Smokeeye while Lisa readied Starshine, and the two set out from South Hoof to where the trail began near the Firgrove mountains, about halfway through the Firgrove cross country track. Louisa looked at the track with a small amount of longing- her GoPro had broken, so she hadn’t been able to make training videos lately. She missed training, though.

“Oh, it’s actually red ribbons,” said Lisa, distracting Louisa from her thoughts. Louisa joined her wife, reaching into a barrel for a red ribbon. Their hands brushed, and Lisa grinned at Louisa’s blush.

“Look at us, we’re married and acting like two kids on their first date,” said Louisa with a laugh.

“Married life is like that when you marry the right person,” said Lisa. Louisa’s heart skipped a beat as she grinned at her wife and leaned in to kiss her.

“Alright, according to this noticeboard, we just have to stick to the trail and follow the posts marked with a red ‘string’,” said Louisa, making the quotation marks with her fingers. “Sounds simple enough.”

“Huh, what’s this?” Lisa asked, squinting at the small print at the bottom of the noticeboard. “Warning: Beware of strange happenings on the trail.”

“At least we’ve got two healers with us, huh?” said Louisa, grinning. Lisa laughed, nudging Louisa’s shoulder with her own.

“Alright, Starshine, let’s go,” said Lisa, swinging herself up into Starshine’s saddle and heading off. Louisa followed alongside her with Smokeeye, glad that the trail was wide enough for two so that she could ride alongside her wife.

At the first little fork in the path, something suddenly thudded down from the sky. Louisa gave a yelp and Lisa grabbed hold of her shoulder, but nothing else happened.

“What on earth?” Louisa murmured, dismounting Smokeeye and going to examine the foreign object. It looked like a wristwatch, but the hands were unmoving. Also, it had many small circles carved into the back of it. Weird. She’d take it back home with her and ask Astor about it, he might know something.

As they continued on up the mountain, a few more strange things happened. A little group of squirrels was disturbed by their presence, running off into the surrounding bushes. Anne rode past, little baby Concorde frolicking around her horse’s hooves and having the time of her life. And there was a ring of mushrooms with little green lights dancing around inside.

“Maybe we shouldn’t go in there,” said Lisa as Louisa looked at it.

“How are you the level-headed one all of a sudden?” Louisa asked. Lisa laughed.

“One of us has to be,” said Lisa. Louisa nodded, seeing the sense in that.

But, as they continued up the trail, Louisa noticed the branches of a dead-looking tree poking up above a rocky protrusion. A familiar-looking cluster of branches.

“Hang on,” said Louisa, guiding Smokeeye up and over the small slope. She remembered when her mare had had a hard time navigating this rocky mountain, but now, her hooves found places to land quite easily. And they rode down into a small area surrounded on three sides by rocky walls and dead bushes, with a tree in the centre surrounded by glowing orbs.

“This takes me back,” said Lisa, smiling as the tiny lights danced around them.

“Do you remember the way?” Louisa asked. They hadn’t been up here since Valentine’s Day, what with wedding preparations and then actually getting married and then the honeymoon.

“Somehow, yes,” said Lisa with a laugh. She rode ahead of Louisa, her wife following the swish of Starshine’s blue tail.

“That first trip up here feels like just yesterday,” said Louisa as she followed her wife through bushes that were still dead and thorny, the trail making it so that the thorns were just out of reach. Smokeeye still twitched her tail out of the way to prevent it from getting caught in the thorns, though.

“I know, right?” said Lisa. “I remember it being a lot steeper, though. I also don’t remember it looking this beautiful. But maybe I was distracted by something else.” She looked back at Louisa with a wink, and Louisa couldn’t help but blush and grin in delight.

“You weren’t the only one,” said Louisa, remembering how enamoured she’d been even back then. How enamoured she still was.

“I definitely remember more mist, though,” said Lisa. “But maybe it was just a misty day.”

“Maybe,” said Louisa. “But I’m glad that it’s clear today.”

At the sight of the by-now familiar rock ledge, Louisa felt a spike of excitement, riding ahead of Lisa and stopping to gaze out at the view that spread below her.

“Still just as beautiful as I remember,” said Louisa, her eyes finding landmarks immediately. Lighthouses, the patchwork of fields of crops, the distant Silverglade Village, the towering, icy cliffs of Dino Valley. She could even just make out some runestones.

“Yep, this view sure is,” said Lisa, hanging back a little. Louisa could feel her wife’s eyes on her, but unlike the first time, she didn’t freeze up. She only turned around and smiled at her.

“There is room for two up here, you know,” said Louisa. “Unless you’re scared of heights, that is. In which case I totally get it, I-“

But, in the space of a few heartbeats, Lisa had ridden up beside Louisa and planted her lips on Louisa’s.

“My only regret is that I forgot to bring chocolate,” said Lisa. “But next time.”

“Too bad this doesn’t count as the highest peak,” said Louisa as she fingered the red ribbon that she’d tied around her left wrist.

“It’s still quite a climb, though,” said Lisa. “We can always go down and grab other ribbons to tie at the actual highest peak.”

“Maybe,” said Louisa. “But I wanna do this right.”

“Scared of superstition?” Lisa asked.

“Terrified,” said Louisa. “Because it’s actually real here in Jorvik.”

“Alright, fair point,” said Lisa, nodding. “But can we stay here and enjoy the view for a bit longer?” Louisa only smiled at her and turned Smokeeye so that both horses stood side by side on the rock ledge, gazing out over the land below. While Smokeeye nuzzled Starshine’s muzzle, playing with the strap of his hackamore, Lisa rested her head on her wife’s shoulder and hummed almost soundlessly.

“Providing your own music since Aideen’s melody only plays at dawn?” Louisa asked.

“Yep,” said Lisa. “What can I say? I’m a sap who likes recreating her first date.”

“Then let’s be saps together,” said Louisa.

Neither of them were sure quite how long they spent out on that ledge, remembering those tentative first steps into this relationship. But at last, Lisa’s stomach rumbled and they both laughed.

“Alright, I hear there’s a campfire at the top,” said Lisa. “Alex is here somewhere with Maya, she brought marshmallows.”

“Oh, excellent,” said Louisa. “I’m starving.”

“Then lead the way,” said Lisa. And Louisa did, grinning as she heard Lisa following behind her on Starshine. The hop up into the little area with the tree was a little difficult, as was remembering how, exactly, to return to the trail, but finally, the two reached the campsite. A few tents were scattered around, along with a few people also hanging ribbons. Louisa glimpsed a few of her friends already there, Jay and Willow, Shane and Via, Hollis and Cadence, even Ariana and Rania. And of course Daine with his arms wrapped tightly around Ydris, basking in the sun like a cat.

“Get lost on the way?” Shane asked, a knowing smirk curving his lips upwards.

“More like… distracted,” said Lisa. She looked up at the old-fashioned clotheslines that held many red ribbons already. “How am I supposed to hang these?”

“Use the little hills,” said Rania.

“Stand on your horses,” said Via at the same time.

“I mean, that’s one way to bond with your horse, as a trust exercise,” said Willow. “But for everyone’s sakes, use the hills.”

“Noted,” said Louisa, sliding out of her saddle and stretching her legs. “Man, it feels like I’ve been in the saddle all day.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s where you were,” said Ariana, winking at her. Louisa blushed but ignored her, instead walking up to the hill and reaching up onto her toes to tie the red ribbon. Her wedding ring flashed in the sunlight as she did, Lisa’s doing the same as she tied her ribbon right beside her wife’s.

“We are now married in the eyes of Jorvegian traditions,” said Lisa. Louisa laughed, feeling happiness bubble through her.

“To new beginnings,” said Louisa. “Like the new beginning of our new life together.”

“Amen to that,” said Lisa, grinning. “Though I wonder, does anyone else have any new beginnings in mind? Daine?”

“Shut up,” Daine muttered, looking a little pale as he shuffled closer to his fiancé. But, unseen by anyone, Shane also turned a touch paler. He’d been thinking of it since even before the wedding, but now, with Via back and this event about new beginnings? The timing could not have been more perfect. He just needed to set it up.


End file.
